Belmoor event
The '''Belmoor event '''was the one of the largest and certainly the most damaging meteor event in recorded history. On Friday 15 February 2013, a meteoroid entered Earth's atmosphere over Leeds around 07:05:32 local time (GMT), becoming a fireball. Moving at a speed of roughly 34,000mph (54,000km/h; 10 miles per second), more than 44 times the speed of sound, it passed over the north of the country and exploded directly above the city of Belmoor. The subsequent shockwave from the explosion caused huge damage throughout the Belmoor local area, killing at least 19 people and injuring over 4000 more. The event was compared to the Cando event in Spain and the Chelyabinsk event in Russia, both of which caused damage to property (although none as much as that seen in Leeds). Comparisions have also been drawn to the Tunguska event. Although classified as an airburst, several small pieces of the meteoroid did impact the ground. The Belmoor event has been described as one of the worst disasters in Leeds for many years. Initial reports Residents throughout Leeds and parts of Home and the United Kingdom witnessed an extremely bright burning object in the sky. Amateur videos and CCTV footage showed a fireball streaking across the sky followed by a sonic boom and an explosion shortly afterward. At times the object was so bright that it cast shadows far stronger than those created by the rising sun. Shortly after the explosion, satellite LSA-1 took photos of the area, showing a streak of smoke across the sky in the area. Technical details Object and entry According to the Leeds Space Agency, preliminary investigations classified it as a bolide moving at about 10 miles per second at a low trajectory over the region. Initially it was unknown whether it was a meteoroid or a comet which had exploded, so it was classified as a bolide. It was later confirmed to have been a meteoroid, however. The size of the meteoroid is estimated to have been somewhere around 20 metres, with a weight of nearly 15,000 tons. Following entry into the atmosphere, the meteoroid begin to burn up and appeared as a very bright fireball streaking across the sky. The meteoroid exploded at an altitude of roughly 30km with power equivalent to over 500 kilotons of TNT, which is equivalent to the power of a small nuclear device. The hypocentre of the explosion was located 30 kilometres in the air directly over central Belmoor. The shockwave from the explosion, which is what caused the majority of the damage, reached Belmoor two minutes later. According to the Leeds Geological Survey, the resultant shockwave from the explosion was recorded to have a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale, with minor shaking being felt as far away as Home as a result. The Richter scale is usually used to measure earthquake shaking intensity. Impact The explosion destroyed the majority of the meteoroid, although several fragments survived enough to impact the ground. A total of 14 impact sites were found, the majority around three miles to the east of Belmoor. One fragment crashed through the roof of a scrap metal reprocessing factory in the eastern industrialised suburbs of Belmoor, causing the roof to collapse and killing many workers. At least four other fragments crashed within the town's limits, including one which caused a fairly large hole in a busy road. Another fragment landed in the Myawn River immediately to the east of the town of Myawn, causing a two-metre-high wave which caused minor flood damage along Myawn's central riverside district. The largest fragment, however, impacted the ground a considerable distance to the south-east, crashing through the iced-over surface of Boondox Reservoir in the outskirts of Boondox, United Kingdom, although causing no damage. The rock was recovered from the bed of the lake and was transported to Leeds to be put on display. Aftermath The Red Cross were deployed in an "unprecedented" rescue effort to provide emergency window coverings, shelter for those who lost their homes, items to keep warm, items to keep secure, and other emergency aid. Countries from around the world donated large quantities of items to the Red Cross as international aid to be distributed throughout the Belmoor area. The initial rescue work was to save people who were trapped under rubble or suffering from injuries or shock, before these items were distributed. Hypothermia was one of the most concerning issues in the aftermath of the disaster. The majority of buildings, even if they were otherwise undamaged, had their windows blown out. This meant that cold winter air could easily get inside, making homes just as cold as the outside air and causing fears that at-risk groups could become ill or even die from hypothermia. The lack of windows also presented another issue, which was security. Riot police were deployed onto the streets to prevent looting of stores by people who had lost everything in the disaster, as the majority of stores, especially in the town centre, had no windows any more and people could just walk in and take whatever they wanted. The same, to a lesser extent, applied to homes. Riot police deployed in the area arrested 92 people throughout 15 February, most of whom were arrested on charges of looting and stealing. At a scrap metal reprocessing factory in eastern Belmoor, where the majority of deaths occurred, workers secured the rest of the building which was still standing and rescued nearly 200 workers from the factory. Up to 2000 workers were rescued by the Red Cross from damaged factories in the industrialised eastern suburbs of Belmoor. On 16 February, President George Griffiths toured Belmoor and nearby Myawn to inspect damage and talk to victims. Source of meteoroid The LSA were quick to rule out any relation between the incidents of the day in Belmoor and Chelyabinsk, Russia. Observations showed that the Chelyabinsk meteor and the Belmoor meteor were travelling in opposite directions, making them unrelated. A quick link was soon established with asteroid 2012 DA14, which would make a record close approach to the Earth later the same day. The LSA confirmed that there is a "small possibility" that 2012 DA14 is the source of the meteoroid, however stressing that it is "unlikely". Later that day, as 2012 DA14 was sighted and tracked by the LSA as it made it's fly-by of Earth, they said that it was "looking increasingly likely" that the meteoroid which caused the Belmoor disaster was from 2012 DA14. The LSA recieved backing from the ESA and NASA with this hypothesis. Early on 16 February, following testing results on fragments of the meteoroid which landed in Boondox Reservoir, the LSA released a statement confirming that the meteoroid which caused the Belmoor event was "a fragment of 2012 DA14" which "had broken away from it" earlier in the day. It is thought that this piece of 2012 DA14 had broken off because of the tidal effects of the Moon stressing and damaging an area of the asteroid, causing a large piece to "chip off". Due to the circumstances at the time, the piece which had broken off accelerated much faster than 2012 DA14 itself, and was pulled closer to Earth as well by gravitational forces. This piece of rock entered the Earth's atmosphere and caused the Belmoor event. Therefore, it was confirmed that although it wasn't 2012 DA14 that impacted at Belmoor, it was the source of the meteoroid that did. It also confirmed that the Belmoor incident was completely unrelated to the Cherlyabinsk incident later in the day in Russia.